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This two ingredient, easy chocolate mousse can be whipped up in a matter of minutes, and it’s rich, smooth creaminess has made it a family favorite.
I have been making the same chocolate mousse recipe for years.
I don’t even remember how I came up with it. Maybe it was from eating some of my “batter” in my experiments in trying to make up a chocolate soufflé recipe; Maybe not. I think I actually sort of made it up when I was on a diet, years back. I was able to eat egg whites in the morning, but I don’t particularly like egg whites, so I would make them into merengues. Little by little, I added different flavorings to them. I added cocoa powder and artificial sweeteners to make a sort of chocolate mousse that had to be eaten immediately or it would separate.
Eventually, I ditched that lifestyle. I ditched artificial sweeteners and added the yolks back into my eggs. I added in some real, dark chocolate into the mix, to help stabilize the mousse and keep it from separating, and finally got a really great dessert that my husband always begs me to make.
I make this mousse or flan whenever I want to use up a bunch of my hens’ eggs.
Watch how easy it is to make this chocolate mousse
Gluten Free and Paleo Chocolate Mousse
I tagged this recipe as gluten free, dairy free, and paleo, but you should note that this depends on the chocolate that you use in the recipe (and how strict you are with your definition of “paleo,” of course). While I call this a 2-ingredient chocolate mousse, keep in mind that chocolate bars include a variety of ingredients themselves.
I usually choose a high-quality dark chocolate bar that is dairy free and gluten free when making this chocolate mousse. I don’t like desserts that are overly sweet, so I’m happy with the result of making this mousse with dark chocolate without adding any additional sweeteners.
If you have more of a sweet tooth and don’t follow any special diets, you can most certainly choose a milk chocolate bar instead. The resulting sweetness of the dessert will be affected by the sweetness of the chocolate bar you use.
Two Ingredient, Easy Chocolate Mousse Recipe
Instructions
- Separate the eggs.
- Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks.
- Meanwhile, in another bowl, melt the chocolate, either over a pot of boiling water or in the microwave, if you prefer.
- As soon as it is melted, pour the egg yolks into the chocolate, and immediately stir them into it.
- Don’t let the yolks sit on the hot chocolate without mixing, or they may begin to cook and not smoothly incorporate into it.
- Most people will say to gently fold the chocolate into the whites so that they don’t fall. That is the correct way of doing things, of course, but I have found that sometimes the chocolate and egg yolk mixture gets too stiff to incorporate it easily. I’ve found that this mousse turns out well when I use my electric beater to mix it all together, when needed. To prevent the whites from falling too much, do your best to mix as gently and for as little time as possible.
- As soon as the ingredients are well combined, pour the chocolate mousse into cups or small bowls. Cover the bowls, and place them in the refrigerator. The consistency improves as the mousse chills, so it’s best to make it at least a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
- You can add a little more cocoa powder if you want a stronger chocolate flavor. You can also add coffee powder or alcohol for different flavors. To make it sweeter you can add sugar or honey. The sweetness also depends on the chocolate that you use, so you can experiment with it to find the best combination for you. I normally make it just as written above: simple yet elegant.
- Since part of the eggs stay raw, I use my freshest eggs, just in case. That said, I’ve made this many times with supermarket eggs, before I had hens myself, and I’ve never had a problem. While the risk of contracting salmonella from eating raw eggs is very small, it is a risk that you should keep in mind. If you are concerned, it has been brought to my attention that may areas have pasteurized eggs available for use in these sorts of recipes. (I’ve never seen them here in Spain.)
Different, Two-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse Recipes
Before posting my chocolate mousse recipe, I did a quick search to see if anybody else was making something similar. Even though I didn’t follow a recipe that I’d seen elsewhere, I doubted that I was the only one who makes this type of chocolate mousse.
When searching for “two ingredient chocolate mousse,” though, I found something unexpected: people weren’t using eggs and chocolate, but rather were using chocolate and water!
I had heard about whipping up chocolate and water before.
A friend of mine makes a chocolate spread that she uses to cover her cakes much in the same way that I make a chocolate ganache. When she told me how she made her chocolate spread, though, I was shocked. They always tell you not to let water touch chocolate, but she was mixing them together!
People were claiming that the chocolate and water “mousse” was the easiest, best tasting chocolate mousse ever! I had my doubts, but I decided to give it a chance.
So, here is how it works:
Two Ingredient, Easy Chocolate Mousse – Version 2
Ingredients:
- 250g dark chocolate
- 1 cup water
Preparation:
1. Melt the chocolate in a large bowl with the water. Gently mix the chocolate and water together.
2. Place the bowl over another bowl filled with ice and water, and whisk the water and chocolate together. I tried using my electric mixer, as I do with my other recipe, and only managed to make a huge mess. So, I switched back to my egg beater.
3. As it cools, it begins to solidify a bit. Whisk lightly. You don’t want to whisk it too much or it will supposedly get grainy. I wanted to whisk mine more, though, because it didn’t seem to be getting the nice, fluffy air bubbles that I’m used to seeing in my other mousse. I refrained, though.
4. Once it solidified a bit more, I spooned it into containers, covered them, and put them into the fridge, just like I do with my usual mousse.
Which two-ingredient chocolate mousse was the best chocolate mousse?
Neither my husband nor I (nor my friend who makes it for cakes) considered this “mousse” to be very mousse-like. It doesn’t have the light, fluffy texture that one would expect in a mousse recipe.
I personally didn’t like the second version chocolate mousse at all! There was no complexity of flavors. It basically just tastes exactly like whatever chocolate you used, slightly watered down.
My husband said it wasn’t bad; it just tastes like a smooth chocolate dessert. He then tried my usual mousse again, and once he tried it, there was no going back. He wanted nothing to do with the water and chocolate version.
My two year old tried the second mousse and spit it out!
“Ese no!! Mommy, ese no es!!” (Not that one mommy!)
So, at our house, my favorite two-ingredient chocolate mousse made with eggs and chocolate was the universal winner!
I think the water “mousse” is OK, but think it is best suited for a cake filling or covering, and not as a stand-alone “mousse.” It is just too rich, and not fluffy enough.
Plus, making the first mousse helps me use up my extra eggs, gives us a little more protein, and uses less chocolate for the resulting amount of mousse. That means that our favorite chocolate mousse recipe is also a lot more inexpensive to make.
We finished our favorite chocolate mousse right away, and the other sat in the fridge untouched for weeks afterward until I sadly threw it out. I doubt I would ever make it again because I also prefer chocolate ganache for covering cakes.
So, I’m curious to hear comments from anybody who is in love with the two-ingredient, water and chocolate mousse floating around the internet.
Anybody?
Now I’m tempted to try making a chocolate mousse with only whipped cream and chocolate. Hmmm, I wonder if it would work.
What’s your favorite way to make chocolate mousse?
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CLAIRE MARTIN
I sprinkled sea salt into it too – amazing!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Oooh, that sounds delicious, Claire. Thanks for the idea, I’ll have to try it sometime!
Ruby
This recipe has been a Go To for me since I found it in a recipe book in my early twenties in college titled Quick Mousse. It adds a little hot espresso to the chocolate & yolk mixture and I’ve never had a problem with it getting too thick. I WISH I could make it with fresh eggs! Sounds much healthier!
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Ruby,
Thanks for the tip! I’ll try that next time!
Martina
You didn’t make this up… It’s the classic, and only real recipe, for chocolate mousse.
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Hi Martina,
Perhaps you didn’t understand what I was trying to say. I don’t expect that I was the first person in the world to make a mousse in this way. I didn’t follow any recipe, though, and, at the time of posting, years ago, I actually looked for a similar recipe online and couldn’t find one. All of the recipes I found at the time used whipped cream or a mixture of whipped cream and meringue.
When I was little, I also played around with flour, butter, sugar, and water and made a pie crust. Nobody showed me how to make one. It was just intuitive for me at the time.
I made it up in the same way. That doesn’t mean that I invented pie crust- I just came up with a way to make it without anybody telling me how. I hope that makes sense.
John William
I tried this but while making it the egg yolks and chocolate became very thick and did not mix in the whites. So I had to use an electric mixer which resulted in the mousse becoming thin and not as fluffy as expected. However it still tasted good, but where did I go wrong?
Tracy Ariza
Hi John,
Yes, this can happen because the eggs and the chocolate turning into almost a truffle/ganache-like texture.
I’ve used my beaters to mix it without issues, but I usually only beat in enough of the whites to get it thinned and then try to fold the rest in (or beat for just a few seconds).
You can see in my video that I also used the mixer. Usually, it will still stay mostly fluffy and a few hours later it still sets into a very mousse-like texture.
I just got a comment from someone who suggested adding a tiny bit of hot water to thin it out before mixing them together. I personally haven’t tried it yet, though, but may try that next time I make this mousse.
We actually make it quite often because it’s my husband’s favorite dessert. We’ve been making it slightly less often lately because we’ve been trying to avoid all sweets, but this is still our go-to dessert recipe for special dinners and such.
Bree T
Today I tried to make the mousse, when I added the chocolate everything turned to soup. Im a beginner baker but I made sure when I separated my whites from the yolk they didnt mix and my white were beat to a stiff peak. Is there something I did wrong?
Tracy Ariza
Hi Bree,
Did you watch the video?
It will get a bit liquidy once you combine everything together, but once it sets up in the fridge, it has a nice, mousse-like texture.
You can see the texture in the video.
So, you were able to get the whites to stiff peaks to begin with?
Shara Bieniek
This looks incredible. Do you have the amount of protein? What chocolate do you prefer? We have our own eggs so I think this needs to be made soon. 🙂
Tracy Ariza
Thank you! It is very good.
I’m not sure on the amount of protein, but there are calculators online that do calculate approximate amounts of protein per egg, so depending upon your serving size, you could easily figure out how much, more or less, it has.
I don’t have a sweet tooth, so I use the darkest chocolate I can find. It works with any chocolate, though. I don’t like milk chocolate, so I wouldn’t personally use it, but it’s fine, too.
Kathy @ Grannys Vital Vittles
Hi Tracy … this looks fantastic! Sharing it this week on FB/G+ … I just love how nutrient dense and simple this is 🙂
Tracy@TheThingsWellMake
Thank you so much!! It is definitely a favorite here at my house, especially with my husband who only wants chocolate desserts. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate (Did I just say that?!!?!?), but I really like it too. Finding a dessert that everybody in the house loves shouldn’t be that complicated, but at my house it is. That’s why I make it quite often! 🙂
lauren
I just made the egg one! It is so easy and delicious! Thank you. I had no idea mouse could be so simple!
Tracy@TheThingsWellMake
Yay!! I’m glad it worked out for you!! 🙂
Rhonda
I just made the egg one it was so easy thanks for this recipe l can’t wait to eat it with my husband tonight.
Tracy Ariza
Awesome!
I hope you both enjoy it. It’s still one of our faves! 🙂
Kathleen
The first recipe is a true French Chocolate Mousse… which I’ve been making for over 30 years. I personally fold in the whites, I don’t use an electric mixer so to add more air into the egg whites and chocolate.
Tracy@TheThingsWellMake
I was surprised that I couldn’t find any recipes like that online at the time. Most involve so many more ingredients, but the simplicity of it is amazing!! (I guess now I’ll have to look it up with “french” in the title.) 🙂
Yes, you are right about how one should usually manually fold the egg whites in, but I have a really hard time getting the whites incorporated into the chocolate and egg yolks mixture without it deflating. Adding the egg yolks to the chocolate results in a really thick, truffle-like consistency. When I only use chocolate without the yolks, I fold them in easily, but I don’t want to leave the yolks out because I think that the resulting mousse has a more complete nutritional profile with them included.
For me, I do it so quickly with the electric beater, that they don’t have time to deflate. When I try to fully incorporate the thick, chocolate mixture by hand, though, I spend so long that I actually deflate it more.
That’s why I showed how I do it, despite it not being the way one should. 😉
Clare
If you boil some water in the kettle before you start making your mousse , if your chocolate and egg mix gets stiff you can loosen it by adding a few drops of the water to the mix and then stirring (you need to be quick and stir quite vigorously) and that will make it easier to fold the mix into the egg whites by hand and should make for a lighter mousse.
Tracy Ariza
Hi Clare,
Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to try that next time. 🙂
I’m constantly drinking herbal teas, so it’s easy for me to have hot water on hand. Ha!
Louise Sawyer
It’s the classic French way to make ‘petit pots au chocolat’ – if you google that title, you’ll find it! ?
Tracy Ariza, DDS
Thanks. I’ll take a look!
Jennifer Dover
The whipped cream and chocolate works! We call it chocolate whipped cream, but it does have a mousse texture. Two cups of whipped cream and the amount of cocoa powder you prefer. We like ours a little sweet and because we don’t eat it very often, we use about a tablespoon of organic powdered sugar. It also makes a great cake filling!
Tracy@TheThingsWellMake
Thanks for the tip!!! 🙂